The 7th LCEDN Annual Conference on the theme of ‘Transforming Energy Access?’ took place from 30 May – 1 June 2018. This year, in addition to attendance in person, LCEDN in partnership with Smart Villages allowed remote participation in many of the conference session via webinar, for those who were unable to join us in person in Loughborough. Presentations and recordings of the sessions will be uploaded shortly.

The LCEDN conference networks colleagues from across the world with interest in low carbon transitions and in addressing energy access challenges (be they providing electricity or modern cooking services). The event is expressly inter-disciplinary bringing together researchers with backgrounds in science, engineering, economics and business and the full gamut of social sciences. It also brings together the academic community with those working in other sectors. Sessions focus on the private sector (both large and small scale), different approaches towards innovation in different sectors, grassroots mobilization and community engagement, and interactions with policymakers and other key stakeholders.

This year our conference was delivered alongside the team coordinating DFID’s Transforming Energy Access initiative (the Carbon Trust, Energy4Impact, University of Cape Town and The Energy and Resources Institute in India). We addressed what it will take to fundamentally transform energy access in new directions. The issues to be explored included, but were in no way limited to:

– The Social/Equity impacts of current and intended energy access programmes (including gender, age, disability etc.)
– Innovative forms of access to finance and alternative delivery mechanisms
– Different approaches to innovation
– New approaches in clean cooking
– Confronting waste in low carbon transitions
– More than entrepreneurialism: energy and local development planning
– Local energy governance